| Alfred H. Miles, ed. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907. | | | Hymns.
IX. “From Greenland’s icy mountains” | | By Reginald Heber (1783–1826) |
| | | FROM Greenland’s icy mountains, | |
| From India’s coral strand, | |
| Where Afric’s sunny fountains | |
| Roll down their golden sand, | |
| From many an ancient river, | 5 |
| From many a palmy plain, | |
| They call us to deliver | |
| Their land from error’s chain! | |
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| What though the spicy breezes | |
| Blow soft o’er Java’s isle; | 10 |
| Though every prospect pleases, | |
| And only man is vile; | |
| In vain, with lavish kindness, | |
| The gifts of God are strown: | |
| The Heathen, in his blindness, | 15 |
| Bows down to wood and stone! | |
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| Can we, whose souls are lighted | |
| With Wisdom from on high,— | |
| Can we to men benighted | |
| The lamp of life deny? | 20 |
| Salvation! Oh salvation! | |
| The joyful sound proclaim, | |
| Till each remotest nation | |
| Has learn’d Messiah’s name. | |
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| Waft, waft, ye winds, His story; | 25 |
| And you, ye waters, roll, | |
| Till, like a sea of glory, | |
| It spreads from pole to pole; | |
| Till, o’er our ransom’d nature, | |
| The Lamb for sinners slain, | 30 |
| Redeemer, King, Creator, | |
| In bliss returns to reign. | | | | |
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